A Guide to MythologyClarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
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A Guide to Mythology
Clarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
Mythology -- Juvenile literature
Manabozho had always prided himself on being able to give as good as he
had received; and to be up with the woodpecker, he had shifted his lodge
so as to enclose a large dry tamarack-tree.
“What can I give you,” said he to the woodpecker; “but as we eat so shall
you eat.”
With this he hopped forward, and, jumping on the tamarack-tree, he
attempted to climb it just as he had seen the woodpecker do in his own
lodge. He turned his head first on one side, then on the other, in the
manner of the bird, meanwhile striving to go up, and as often slipping
down. Ever and anon he would strike the tree with his nose, as if it had
been a bill, and draw back, but he pulled out no raccoons; and he dashed
his nose so often against the trunk that at last the blood began to
flow, and he tumbled down senseless upon the ground.
The woodpecker started up with his drum and rattle to restore him, and by
beating them violently he succeeded in bringing him to.
As soon as he came to his senses, Manabozho began to lay the blame of his
failure upon his wife, saying to his guest:
“Nemesho, it is this woman-relation of yours—she is the cause of my not
succeeding. She has made me a worthless fellow. Before I took her I also
could get raccoons.”
The woodpecker said nothing, but flying on the tree he drew out several
fine raccoons.
“Here,” said he, “this is the way we do!” and left him in disdain,
carrying his bill high in the air, and stepping over the door-sill as if
it were not worthy to be touched by his toes.
After this visit, Manabozho was sitting in the lodge one day with his
head down. He heard the wind whistling round it, and thought that by
attentively listening he could hear the voice of some one speaking to
him. It seemed to say to him:
“Great chief, why are you sorrowful? Am not I your friend—your guardian
spirit?”
Manabozho immediately took up his rattle, and without rising from the
ground where he was sitting, began to sing the chant which has at every
close the refrain of, “Wha lay le aw.”
When he had dwelt for a long time on this peculiar chant, which he had
been used to sing in all his times of trouble, he laid his rattle aside
and determined to fast. For this purpose he went to a cave which faced
the setting sun, and built a very small fire, near which he lay down,
first telling his wife that neither she nor the children must come near
him till he had finished his fast.
At the end of seven days he came back to the lodge, pale and thin,
looking like a spirit himself, and as if he had seen spirits. His wife
had in the meantime dug through the snow and got a few of the plants
called truffles. These she boiled and set before him, and this was all
the food they had or seemed likely to obtain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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